Mario Valdes Obituary

Mario Valdes, a 30 year resident of Colorado Springs, entered eternal life on September 14, 2007. He was 54. Mario was born in Havana, Cuba. His father was a dealer of import/ export domestics and the family moved to New York City when Mario was 2. He grew up in Brooklyn and Queens and attended Brooklyn Technical High School. In third grade, Mario determined he had three goals in life: to be a New York City cab driver, to design houses and to run a radio station. After briefly living in Miami, 19 year-old Mario returned to New York and drove a yellow cab in Manhattan for a year--his most famous passenger being Katherine Hepburn. Mario attended Oklahoma State University to study architecture and moved to Denver in the mid 1970s to begin a career as an architectural designer. For several years he designed beautiful custom homes and offices for clients in Denver, Perry Park, Monument and Colorado Springs. A music collector, Mario volunteered at KRCC (91.5 FM) owned by Colorado College in 1979. He became the station's manager and first paid employee in 1980 and first full-time employee in 1983. He ran KRCC for 26 years and left in 2006. As station manager he created the blueprint of programming heard on KRCC today. He was instrumental in making KRCC the National Public Radio affiliate for southern Colorado in 1984 and started a local news program in 2005. Mario was married to wife Donna for eighteen years; their son, Adam, was born in 1986. Mario enjoyed giving Adam the unique opportunity of meeting such personalities as Johnny Winter, Lyle Lovett and Randy Newman at the concerts which KRCC produced in the early 1990s. A self-proclaimed "political junkie", Mario thoroughly enjoyed the intricacies, philosophies and personalities of politics. As a naturalized United States citizen, he held close to his heart the personal rights and freedom of his country. Mario's favorite peaceful past-time was fishing. He particularly enjoyed the many times he spent fishing with family and friends at 11 Mile Reservoir and with his son at Lake Powell, Utah. Mario was preceded in death by his mother, Gilda (Riesgo) Valdes; brother, Frank and grandparents Jacqueline and Jean Gall. He is survived by his son, Adam, his sisters, Joyce Skowron and Frances Collado, his nephew, Luis Hernandez, his father, Mario and many dear friends including Donna (Valdes) Sheloski.